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State Regulators Wary of Releasing Fracking Data While Feds Rein In Oversight

Natural gas is burned off next to water reservoirs used for fracking at an oil well site August 23, 2011 near Tioga, North Dakota. Hydraulic fracturing, often called fracking or hydrofracking, is the process of initiating and subsequently propagating a fracture in a rock layer, employing the pressure of a fluid as the source of energy The fracturing, known as a frack job is done from a wellbore drilled into reservoir rock formations, in order to increase the extraction rates and ultimate recovery of oil and natural gas and coal seam gas. A new oil boom in western North Dakota has produced thousands of jobs as the Bakken formation is tapped for the liquid commodity.

After re­quest­ing data from state reg­u­lat­ors in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas, and West Vir­gin­ia, AP found ma­jor dis­crep­an­cies between states in how com­plaint and con­tam­in­a­tion cases were re­gistered and re­cor­ded. There was also push­back from some state of­fi­cials over the re­lease of the data in states like Pennsylvania, while in oth­ers, such as Texas, reg­u­lat­ors did not hes­it­ate to provide the re­ques­ted in­form­a­tion.

The re­port shows con­firmed cases of well-wa­ter con­tam­in­a­tion in Pennsylvania and Ohio, al­though Ohio reg­u­lat­ors in­sist that this is un­re­lated to frack­ing. In West Vir­gin­ia and Texas, reg­u­lat­ors have not con­firmed aquifer con­tam­in­a­tion, but nu­mer­ous com­plaints of pos­sible con­tam­in­a­tion were re­ceived there. In West Vir­gin­ia, reg­u­lat­ors have re­ceived 122 re­cor­ded com­plaints in the past four years, while the Texas tally topped 2,000.

Al­though AP is quick to note that the num­ber of com­plaints re­gistered in each state make up only a small frac­tion of the total wells fracked, the re­port nev­er­the­less sug­gests that state reg­u­lat­ors, over­all, ap­pear wary of re­leas­ing data re­lated to frack­ing, a stance that en­vir­on­ment­al ad­voc­ates in par­tic­u­lar have found troub­ling.

The news comes at the same time that en­ergy ana­lysts say the fed­er­al gov­ern­ment is un­likely to step up its over­sight of frack­ing ahead of the 2014 midterm elec­tions.

Re­u­ters re­ports that the En­vir­on­ment­al Pro­tec­tion Agency may be eas­ing off ef­forts to en­force pen­al­ties against drillers for pos­sible con­tam­in­a­tion due to the fact that frack­ing has brought about ma­jor eco­nom­ic growth across the U.S.

The In­teri­or De­part­ment’s Bur­eau of Land Man­age­ment is work­ing to cre­ate frack­ing reg­u­la­tions that would re­quire drillers to fully dis­close all of the chem­ic­als used in drilling op­er­a­tions, but the rule has not been fi­nal­ized. EPA, mean­while, has ten­ded to de­fer to state reg­u­lat­ors in is­sues in­volving al­leg­a­tions of ground­wa­ter con­tam­in­a­tion, likely be­cause the agency is un­will­ing to ruffle feath­ers when frack­ing is seen as one of the few bright spots in the eco­nomy.

"Chuck Rosenberg, the acting head of the Drug Enforcement Agency who has found himself and his agency at odds with the Trump administration in recent months, told staff members Tuesday that he is planning to step down from his post." The Obama administration holdover will step down on October 1.

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HAD BEGUN TO PUBLICLY CRITICIZE TRUMP

Sen. Corker to Retire

1 hours ago

THE DETAILS

Another Republican member of Congress is showing himself out the door. After much thought, consideration and family discussion over the past year, Elizabeth and I have decided that I will leave the United States Senate when my term expires at the end of 2018,” said Sen. Bob Corker in a statement. The Tennessean has served since 2006.

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NOT ILLEGAL, BUT MUST BE FORWARDED TO WORK ACCOUNTS

At Least 6 WH Advisors Used Private Email Accounts

2 hours ago

THE LATEST

Jared Kushner, Stephen Bannon, Reince Priebus, Gary Cohn, Stephen Miller, and Ivanka Trump sent or received some emails on personal accounts that related to White House business. "Officials are supposed to use government emails for their official duties so their conversations are available to the public and those conducting oversight. But it is not illegal for White House officials to use private email accounts as long as they forward work-related messages to their work accounts so they can be preserved."

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SAYS CONTACTS WERE “BENIGN”

Stone Releases Correspondence with Guccifer 2.0

2 hours ago

THE LATEST

"Roger Stone, a longtime friend and adviser to Donald Trump, released correspondence Tuesday" with the online hacker known as Guccifer 2.0 , which "U.S. intelligence agencies said was used by Russian government-linked entities to distribute embarrassing information about Democrats during the 2016 election. The disclosures came in a 47-page opening statement made available to reporters in advance of Mr. Stone’s Tuesday appearance in front of the House Intelligence Committee." Stone called his contacts with Guccifer "limited" and "benign."

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PRIEBUS, SPICER, HICKS, MCGAHAN

Mueller Could Start Interviewing White House Figures This Week

2 hours ago

THE LATEST

"Special counsel investigators could start interviewing current and former White House staff as soon as later this week regarding the Russian probe, two sources familiar with the matter tell CNN. One source cautioned it is still being worked out with Robert Mueller's office and said it might be delayed until next week." Among those who could have a sit-down with the special prosecutor: former chief of staff Reince Priebus, former press secretary Sean Spicer, communications director Hope Hicks, White House counsel Don McGahn, communications adviser Josh Raffel and associate counsel James Burnham.